Thursday, February 04, 2010

Random Wizards News

Not a lot of big news today, but some different random bits of news about the Wizards.

First, Wizards President, Robb Heineman has an update on what's going on out at the Wizards stadium site out at the Legends. No big news on that front, other than they continue to move dirt around and are getting ready to start moving dirt away from the site. Below is the video from Hillcrest Road.

Also from Hillcrest Road the past two days, Kerry Zavagnin has been providing practice updates over at the Wizards blog. Yesterday was the first day of those updates and today he added even more to the report on practice. Today's report provides a lot more information on what the team is doing in practice, but yesterday gave more thought to the belief that goalkeeper Kevin Hartman will not be back in KC. Yesterday Zavagnin said that the #1 shirt is wide open that there's not really a #1 at the moment. You could say people are reading to much into it, but some people, including myself see this as a sign that Hartman likely isn't going to be in KC next season.

On the US national team front, no Wizards were named to the US roster for the upcoming friendly against El Salvador in Tampa in late February. This move doesn't bother me at all, I'd rather Wizards players be in camp right now preparing for the 2010 MLS season.

Finally, a little delayed news from before the signing of Kei Kamara was completed. According to Soccer America before the signing was completed the Wizards were apparently contacted about former MLSer, Stern John, who has been playing in England since leaving MLS after the 1999 season. There isn't word on whether the Wizards were actually really interested in signing John, only that they'd been contacted about him. The signing of Kamara, as the SA article says, likely took KC out of the running to get John, as the Adam Cristman trade showed the Wizards already had too many forwards on the roster.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I would be really disappointed to see kevin go. he's been such a huge part of team the last few seasons and i would argue why didn't have even worse record last season. he's also a great face for the organization. who is the most likely replacement? and where would he be likely to end up?

Most likely replacement is one of the guys currently in camp, or the new guy that Thad mentioned yesterday. They could also still bring in someone else too (I personally would like to see Ray Burse brought in). As for where Hartman would go, it likely won't be somewhere in MLS, the Wizards have probably offered him a contract so unless the CBA rules change, the Wizards will hold his MLS rights for the next 2 years. He could pull a Ralston and go to the USSF division 2.